Of Plums And Journeys
by LadyOfGlass
Summary: Because everyone deserves a happy ending, of sorts, even if it's not the one that fate intended for them. Fili and Kili return to the Blue Mountains after their quest for Erebor is done, and Fili looks for his friend. Who might no longer just be a friend. Fili/OC Fili's POV
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: So, here it is. My first attempt at a romance. Full credit for the idea goes once more to the lovely Dunadanka. This is written as if the Battle of the Five Armies went a different way, and all members of the Company survived.**

**It was actually really enjoyable to write, even though I'm terrified of my first OC being pathetic, so I hope you like it.**

So, the triumphant heroes had returned unscathed from their harrowing adventure. Well, more or less unscathed. I was walking a bit slower than usual do to one or two broken ribs, and Kili had ingeniously clasped his hair back into a loose and faintly effeminate bun so as to disguise the fact that a good portion of said hair had been burned clean off. This made him look like an idiot, in my opinion, but I wasn't about to mention it.

The important thing was that we'd won, and we were going back to Ered Luin to bring the dwarves there news of the outcome of our quest.

What with Bilbo heading back to his Shire with Gandalf as an escort, and Thorin busy establishing himself as King Under the Mountain, the rest of us had begun to trickle back westwards to find our families.

Some of the others, Nori in particular, had expressed a desire to linger awhile longer in Lake-Town, doubtless to enjoy the very fine ale that the men there made, but Kili and I had pressed on, eager to see our mother again,

We'd had a few interesting encounters on the return journey, of course. A lone warg had attacked us just after we got clear of Mirkwood, and later on, a horned creature that somewhat resembled a goblin had leapt from the underbrush while we were enjoying supper, and tried to throttle me.

Armed as we were, we'd dealt with the warg fairly easily, and Kili had felled the horned thing with a well aimed blow with the stewpot. He'd spent the rest of the journey regretting the fact that Thorin hadn't been there to see that particular fight.

The only other incident worth mentioning was a rather lively one, when Kili, exhibiting his amazing ability to find trouble anywhere, had tossed a rock at a rather large wasps' nest. The wasps that inhabited it were also quite abnormal in size, as I'd had ample time to observe when they all shot out to get revenge. Only by throwing ourselves unceremoniously into a pond had Kili and I managed to escape being severely stung.

But now we were standing in front of the Eastern Gates, preparing to signal our presence to the guard in as dignified as way as possible.

"Oi!" Kili yelled, cupping his hands to his mouth "Let us in!"

I backed up this plea for admittance by giving the gate a good, hard kick, and it wasn't long before it swung open and we were allowed in.

The guard stationed there looked rather taken aback to see us standing there grinning at him, not a blackened and burnt mess, but both whole and more or less healthy looking.

"Fili...? Kili...?"

"Hello - Torfi, isn't it?" I said, pleasantly "How are you these days?"

"Well enough. But if you're here, then..."

"Erebor's ours again," said Kili, nodding "Thorin's got his throne back, and Smaug the Terrible is dead."

He omitted to say that it had, in fact, been Bard of Lake-Town who had done the deed, but there would be time to elaborate the details later. Kili and I had planned to announce our victory in as grand a manner as possible, but it was somehow more satisfying to say it almost casually, as if we were merely remarking upon the weather.

"So, if I were you," I said "I'd start spreading the word."

Torfi nodded and started hurrying towards his fellow guards to impart this news. Kili grabbed my arm, clearly intending to find our mother as quickly as possible, but I paused.

_Plums, and wood smoke, and the sound of a knife against a whetstone._

"Torfi!" I called "Is Gudny, daughter of Snorri still living by Bersi's forge?"

Torfi looked up from where he was deep in whispered conversation with the other guards and nodded.

"Snorri's daughter? Aye, she's still there."

Kili had enough decency to wait until we were out of ear-shot before bursting out laughing.

"_Gudny?_"

_Yes._

You don't get to know many dwarves your age when you grow up the way that Kili and I did, and dwarf children in general were steadily becoming rarer.

But I'd known Gudny.

_The dwarf standing in the marketplace watched me in a faintly unnerving way. Her hair was dark brown and had been twisted into four braids, all of which were starting to come undone. She had broad, sturdy features and brown eyes set beneath thick, dark eyebrows._

_There were probably many other eloquent phrases that could be used to describe her appearance, but I wasn't a poet. She had a determined sort of face, still too young and round to be particularly good looking._

_She was, I found out later, a bit younger than me, but she stood half a head taller, and I noticed to my annoyance that her beard, which was already coming in along her jawline, was quite a bit thicker than mine._

_"How many plums can you fit in your mouth?" she asked, abruptly, and her voice pulled up at the vowels in the accent that was common among some of the less noble clans._

_Well, it wouldn't win any prizes for being a particularly deep or intellectually stimulating question, but I knew a challenge when I heard one. She was holding a large wooden bowl full of plums, which she proffered to me._

_A few minutes later, I had to admit that even though plums are quite small and tend to mash together when you chew them up, you can only fit so many in your mouth._

_"Eight," I said, indistinctly, spraying plum juice everywhere "Wha' about you?"_

_"Only six. But I've been practicing."_

_We stood there for a moment or two, while I tried to swallow my plums and ended up spitting most of them out into a sticky pile of mush. _

_"Lovely," said my new acquaintance, twitching her dark, blue skirts away from the mess "Just lovely."_

_ I shrugged - I could remember when Kili had been born, and he'd spent a good deal of time spitting up worse._

_"Fili, at your service," I said, with courteous, if slightly emotionless politeness._

_"Gudny, at yours," she said. Her face was wearing the strangely solemn expression that she'd had throughout the conversation, but the now decidedly upwards slant of her eyebrows gave me the uncomfortable impression that she was laughing at me._

_We both moved to shake hands, but we both timed it wrong and ended up sort of tangling fingers. My hand was still sticky with juice and there was substantial evidence to prove that she'd recently used hers to wipe her nose, which made it one of the most unhygienic pseudo-handshakes of the Age._

_I was just about to hastily wipe my palm on my tunic, before I noticed that Gudny was grinning. Up to that point her features had been set into a faintly surly expression, but now it creased into a perfectly normal, cheerful grin. Her eyes crinkled at the corners, and it made her look...not bad, really._

"Are you even listening to me?" Kili asked, nudging me in the ribs.

"Mmm?"

_"Come on, Gudny, just this once."_

_Gudny, who had been leaning over the hearth fire, prodding the contents of her mother's stewpot with the air of someone bracing themselves for a ghastly discovery any second, straightened up and scowled at me._

_ In the past few years we'd both grown quite a bit, though she was still aggravatingly taller than I was, and even her glares were more amusing than disconcerting now. I could always tell when she was actually angry, and when she was only being bad tempered for the look of it, because when she was truly serious she had the habit of stuttering and stumbling over her words._

_"Where's Kili?" she asked "He enjoys this sort of thing much more than I do."_

_"He's off with Thorin," I said, grimacing "Archery practice."_

_My own experiments with a bow had resulted in me having to tug a good number of arrows out of the beams of our roof, and I had done my best to avoid this particular weapon every since._

_"Look, it's never any fun because you always win," said Gudny, coming back to the matter at hand._

_"Not always. You won last time, right?"_

_"Only because you felt sorry for me. I'm not doing it, Fili - no. If that's the only reason you're here, you can get out of my house."_

_"I won't leave until you say yes," I said, resorting to tactics which were unfortunately a little childish "In fact, I might just sit down, right here in the doorway, and you can just try making me move."_

_Gudny sighed but nodded - the thought of me cluttering up the place for all eternity doubtless rather unappealing._

_"Right," she said "Toss me a stick."_

_I'd brought two, in fact. Thick, sturdy sticks made of oak that Thorin often used when he gave Kili and I fighting lessons, and which were about two arm-lengths long, to use the most useless and uncertain unit of dwarven measurement._

_I was about to throw her one, like I would if she had been Kili, and then thought better of it and simply held it out to her. It wasn't that I thought that she couldn't catch it, it was just that..._

_Well, I couldn't really put my finger on why I did this, to tell the truth. _

_Gudny took the stick and reversed her grip on it, bringing it up in front of her to act as a shield between us. I'd pestered her into helping me practice sparring enough times that she knew from experience that I was most likely to lash out at chest height first, and had adjusted her technique accordingly._

_I raised my own stick, but then held still, knowing that if I waited long enough she'd grow impatient and therefore be likely to make more mistakes._

_And I was right. Gudny swung her stick at head height, but I was already ducking and bringing my own...well, for the sake of an argument you might call it a weapon...up to block the blow. Gudny staggered, and barely managed to parry my own swing._

_To be strictly honest, it wasn't exactly a fair fight. Apart from the obvious issue of the amount of training that I'd been doing, there was also the fact that Gudny was wearing a heavy, movement impairing dress. _

_But she was a little faster than I was - though, not faster than Kili - and she wasn't weak, either. And I was, though I'd die before admitting it, letting a little slowly. I was trying to do it subtly though, because Gudny tended to react badly to people pitying her._

_She stumbled sideway to dodge another one of my attacks, and my tip of my stick glanced off her fingers._

_Gudny yelped (well, she would have called it a yelp, though I thought it was approaching 'squeal territory'), and dropped her weapon._

_"Are you...are you alright?" I asked, uncertainly, watching as she doubled up, nursing her hand._

_"No," she gasped "You've cracked my knuckles open, you - y-you brute!"_

_"But - but, I didn't even hit you that hard!" I stammered, dropping my own stick and staring at her, starting to feel unpleasantly guilty._

_"Look," said Gudny, still clasping her hurt hand to her chest._

_"Well, I can't if you keep hiding it, can I?" I snapped, now feeling distinctly worried "Let me look - ack!"_

_Admittedly, I hadn't planned on saying the 'ack!' bit, but as I leaned over Gudny, she suddenly twisted sideways and kicked my legs out from underneath me, resulting in me connecting rather painfully with the floor._

_"I won, I believe," said Gudny, grinning widely as she stood over me._

_"By cheating," I said, sitting up and cautiously rubbing my now rather sore back "Where's the honor in that?"_

_"Honor is for dwarven princes," said Gudny, sticking out a hand to help me up "I'm not one, am I? So why should I bother with honor?"_

_There was an undeniable logic in that._

Kili had stopped trying to talk to me, and had begun to hum. I knew the tune of course - we all did.

The sword is sharp, the spear is long,  
The arrow swift, the gate is strong,  
The heart is bold that looks on gold,  
The dwarves no more shall suffer wrong.

_"You're a fool," said Gudny, bluntly "You're a fool and you're going to die. I'm surprised you mother is even letting you two go."_

_"She took quite a lot of persuading," I said._

_We were sitting outside the forge in which Kili and I had lately been working, in the process of sharpening the numerous knives which I'd decided to bring with me on the journey ahead._

_Gudny adjusted her grip on the whetstone in her hand, then looked across to me, her expression grim._

_"Let Kili go, but you stay here."_

_"What? Let the little idiot go off alone? Without me? Don't be stupid."_

_"Fili, you're going up against a - a d-d-dragon. You'll all be b-b-burned to cinders."_

_Something about this wording struck me as familiar._

_"You've been talking to Bofur, haven't you?" I asked, suspiciously._

_"Well, maybe I have," said Gudny, looking a little embarrassed "He m-m-might be exaggerating a little, but not much. Do you remember leaving Erebor?"_

_"Not distinctly."_

_"B-because I do. Smaug destroyed Dale easily, Fili. He w-wasn't even trying very hard. And yet there's only ruins, now, around the Mountain. Ruins and wastelands."_

_"I'll be fine," I said, as confidently as I could manage, but even as I said it, I felt a strange, cold feeling wrap around my heart "You'll see."_

"Well, there it is," said Kili, gesturing "There's Bersi's forge. Now, can you tell me why coming here first means so much to you? Because if this means what I think it means, then..."

I was about to reach out and cuff him about the ears - tell him that Gudny was like my sister and of course I wanted to see her.

But I didn't.

Because there she was, stepping out of the forge, her soot-smudged face rather at odds with her intricately braided hair. She looked strange and familiar too, and I noted, in a disconnected fashion, that her dress was a deep purple.

The colour of plums.

Gudny looked up and I saw her eyes widen slightly. She stopped in her tracks, her skirts trailing in the dirt and her lips pressed very tightly together, as if she was trying to stop herself from yelling something out.

We watched each other for what might have been a few moments or a few hours, and I wondered if maybe she truly hadn't expected me to come back.

Later, I would be indignant about that. But for now, I was almost as surprised as her to find myself standing there.

And then she was running, tripping and stumbling over the hem of her dress which was really much too big for her, and all of a sudden she was standing there, right in front of me. I didn't really have much experience in what happened next, although Gudny assured me some time afterwards that I'd done alright.

Kili had only said that he had never seen anything quite so amusing before in his life.

What's amusing about a kiss? I found it enjoyable, if a bit strange, myself.

After a few moments in which Gudny and I both did our best to ignore the sound of Kili trying (unsuccessfully) not to laugh, I took a quick step back, and she did the same.

"You look...different," Gudny said, clearing her throat a few times before doing so.

"You do too. In a, um, good way, of course."

Gudny laughed, and it was a rather nice laugh, and it made her eyes crinkle at the corners.

"Go find Dis, if you haven't, already," she said "Then come back. I think you might have a lot to tell me."

I let Kili pull me away at this point - I wasn't in any state to resist. I would come back, and we would talk, and maybe I'd tell her about my adventures, and she'd tell me about hers. It was something to keep with me, and something to look forward to.

"_So_," said Kili, as we walked "Gudny, then?"

"Feeling jealous?" I said, feeling much too happy to get into an argument.

"Of her? Never! I mean, you're not bad looking or anything, brother, but I've never really liked fair-hair..."

"Kili?"

"Yes, Fili?"

"Shut up."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: So, because I felt like it, this now has a second chapter. Set in Erebor. Please read and review.**

I headed down a long set of stairs, and then through a stone archway into a long , I was still struggling to memorize the layout of Erebor, but already, the place felt _right._ It's much easier to act like nobility when you're striding through your people's ancient halls than when you're shovelling manure out of some farmer's cow pastures or something similarly unpleasant.

And, of course, to add to my good mood, Gudny was one of the many dwarves from Ered Luin who had travelled to Erebor. We'd both been busy in the past few weeks, of course, as had everyone, exploring and taking stock of the various treasuries and so forth.

But there had been time to talk. And a few other pursuits generally along those lines.

In fact, I was so absorbed in my thoughts (which featured purple dresses, laughing dark eyes, and a nice smile), that I completely failed to notice yet another stairway appear, seemingly from out of nowhere, directly beneath my feet.

This particular stairway had exactly thirty-two steps, and I cracked my head or some other part of my anatomy on every single one of them on my hasty, and inelegant descent. When I finally rolled to a halt and levered myself painfully up into a sitting position, I saw that I'd arrived in one of the lower halls.

Six long wooden table had been pushed towards the middle of this hall, and upon them was spread a variety of goblets, necklaces, and gold rings. Dwarves sat around the tables, sorting through the treasures and making note of them in a series of large, leather bound books.

As a strange sort of reflex, I scanned the hall for other members of the former Company. Dori was sitting at the table farthest to the left, with Ori beside him. At the next table, Gloin was examining a particularly fine silver cup.

And then I had no time at all for looking for old friends, because Gudny, who had been perched on the very edge of a bench writing down the details of a fetching golden circlet, jumped up and grinned at me.

She was dressed very practically in wool and leather, and her dark brown hair was hanging down her back in a single, long plait. Part of me wished that she'd just stand still so that I could look at her for a bit longer, but she'd only have laughed, and anyway, she was already hurrying across the hall towards the place where I still sat, at the foot of the stairs.

"Hello," she said, when she reached me "Do you often do this sort of thing?"

"What sort of thing?" I asked, allowing her to pull me to my feet.

"Stumble. Fall. Trip over your own feet every other step," said Gudny, perhaps a touch bluntly.  
"No," I said, trying half heartedly to dust myself off "No, it's usually Kili's specialty. You could have asked me if I was alright, you know."

Gudny stared at me, her head on one side and her eyebrows raised.

"Why would I? I already _know_ you're alright."

It was one of those comments that leaves you struggling to try and sort it out, and I was still trying to figure out exactly what Gudny had meant, when Kili sauntered over to join us.

"Hello, Fili," he said, his face splitting into that ever-ready grin of his "Good performance, that was. I really liked the bit where you turned that somersault half way down."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," I said, pouring on as much sarcasm as possible, even though Kili tended to be immune to such tactics "I didn't break any bones, in case you were worrying."

"Hush," said Gudny, reaching up to gently touch the side of my face with her fingertips "There's no point scrapping about it."

Well, this shut me right up, as you can imagine. I did, however, shoot Kili a Watch-Your-Step sort of glance, which he pointedly ignored.

"You can do that later," he said, batting Gudny's hand away from my face "Fili, Balin swears that he remembers there's a wine cellar that we haven't found yet, towards the east side of the mountain. Do you want to come look for it with us?"

"You're both going?" I asked, warily.

Not that I didn't like exploring with Kili - he was always up for anything, especially if it involved some kind of mischief - but...

But I'd rather go with Gudny. Just, well, the two of us, without my brother there.

"Yes," said Kili, as if I was an idiot to ask "You ought to come, and if we're the first ones to find it, we might be able to claim a bottle or two."

And while I was struggling with my selfishness, and feeling like a worm for wishing that Kili would disappear for a while, Gudny spoke up.

"Have you talked to your uncle, yet?"

"Thorin?" I asked, as if I had more than one uncle "Well, we talked this morning about dealing with all the rats in the Armory. Why do you ask?"

She gave me a hard look that made me certain that I was forgetting something very important, while behind her Kili was visibly struggling to retain a straight face. So he knew whatever I didn't.

"Aren't you going to tell him about us?" said Gudny, speaking a little slower, as if addressing someone either very young or infirm.

I forced myself to keep smiling, as my stomach did a few enthusiastic back flips. Tell Thorin. About us.

"Ah, right," I said, in a strangled sort of way "Right. Er. Yes. Yes, I'd better go, um, do that now."

"There's no need to look so frightened," said Gudny, sounding mystified by the fact that I had doubtless paled considerably "He won't be angry, will he?"

I was trying to think of an answer to this one, when, thankfully, Kili stepped in.

"No-o," he said, slowly "Probably not angry. But you don't know Thorin like we do. He can look at you in a certain way and...well, it's hard to explain, you see."

I could only nod, but Gudny laughed, not nastily, but clearly not taking this as seriously as me.

"Fili, you've fought trolls, and wargs, and goblins," she said, looking up at me, her face changing from happy to a bit more serious "This can't be half so bad, can it?"

I would have liked to say that at least the wargs and goblins weren't likely to fix me with a stern look and perhaps forbid me to wed dwarf from a fairly common clan as Gudny's.

And I truly didn't think that this last one was a likelihood. Thorin was as understanding as they come, as long as you didn't profess to be in love with an elf, but the thing about him was...

You always wanted to offer him your best, and you always wanted to meet his expectations of you. Kili generally had to try harder than me to achieve these, but I was far from confidant.

But Gudny was watching me and there were some things that I couldn't tell her.

"Right," I said, trying to gather my wits and sound more confident than I felt "You're right. I'll go tell him."

Gudny smiled, and tilted her face upwards, and Kili had the decency to look away for a few moments.

"Good," he said, when we were done, giving me a grin that was wicked enough to make me wonder how much he was enjoying this whole episode "Are you sure you won't wait until we've found the wine? Maybe a drink could give you a bit of courage..."

I didn't deign to reply, partly because I was trying, at least for Gudny's sake, to head off one of our usual but amiable arguments, and partly because I secretly thought that he might have a point.

"Good luck, Fili," said Gudny, giving me a smile, before she and Kili turned and crossed the hall, heading for the passage that lead even deeper into the mountain.

As they walked, I saw Kili whisper something to Gudny, and she laughed. I stood and watched them until they were out of sight.

Me? Jealous?

Never.

It took me a while to reach the Western Hall, where Thorin and Balin spent most of their time examining various maps of the interior of the mountain, and marking down which areas we'd already established ourselves in, and which parts we hadn't even found yet.

I was hoping that Balin would be there when I arrived, as he was about as sympathetic a witness to your conversation as you could get, but only my uncle was standing at the Maps Table.

He was examining a very old, very yellowed map, which I saw detailed the storage rooms, but looked up as I entered and smiled.

It was almost disconcerting. Of course, he'd smiled before we'd reclaimed our kingdom, but, much as Kili and I had hated it, his habitual expression had been a decidedly grim one.

Which was understandable.

And now, even though he wasn't continually cheerful, he certainly smiled a lot more.

"Fili," he said, simply, by way of greeting.

"Hello, Thorin," I said, managing a weak smile "I, er, I have something I'd like to tell you."

"Go on," said Thorin, nodding, and laying aside his map, as if to show that I had his complete attention.

"Well, um," I began, with a dazzling display of confidence "I, um..."

Thorin raised his eyebrows, giving me a look that was straight from the good old days. It said; I'm listening, and I'm quite busy, so this had better be worth my time, Fili.

"Has Kili done something?' he asked, in the weary tone of someone who has been there before, many, many times.

"No," I said, slowly, then finished all in one breath "Thorin, I'd like to marry."

Well, my voice went up a few octaves to a very un-dwarflike pitch, and my words slurred together a little, but Thorin seemed to understand.

"I see," he said, and he sounded a bit amused "And who is the, ah, lucky dwarf?"

"Gudny," I said "Gudny, daughter of Snorri."

I didn't doubt that my uncle knew Gudny - I'd always been puzzled by the fact that Thorin seemed to know the name of every dwarf who now lived in Erebor.

"And I take it that you're asking my permission?" said Thorin.

"Yes," I said, feeling a surge of hope, and taking refuge in a monosyllabic reply.

"She'll be a good wife," Thorin said, at last, and then he smiled.

Again. Twice in one conversation. A record that would have been unthinkable a few months ago.

And that was a yes.

_A yes._

I displayed my feelings of triumph and joy in a refined and subdued fashion.

"If you're done jumping up and down like that..." said Thorin.

"Oh, yes, sorry," I said, picking up the chair that I'd knocked over, and taking a few rapid steps towards the door before stopping and looking back at my uncle "Thorin...thank you."

I'm not sure if he said anything in reply to this, because I was hurrying out the door, with the intention of finding Gudny and imparting this bit of news. Although, I never had to, because she found me first.

"Fili!"

She had been standing, leaning against a stone pillar, but she pushed away from it and came hurrying to meet me. I caught her and spun her around, which is harder than people generally make it look, but entirely worth the effort.

"You're a mess," I remarked, as soon as I'd set Gudny down and we were both dizzy and holding onto each other for balance.

She was, too. Her face and hands were covered in soot and grime and her hair was elaborately decorated with cobwebs.

"Why, thank you," said Gudny, a tad sarcastically, but she was grinning too widely to be serious.

"Did you find the wine cellar?"

"Yes, and no," she said, carefully "We sort of found it. A bit abruptly."

"Meaning?"

"Well, there's a secret trap door that leads to it, you see. We found it accidentally. You aren't the only one to take a fall today."

I nodded for her to go on, picturing this event happily.

"The wine was all locked up, but we fetched Bofur and some of the lads, and they brought their mattocks and axes, and we brought most of the bottles back to the storage rooms."

"Where's Kili?"

"See, there's a reason why I said 'most of the bottles'. He's currently bringing a couple to the Main Hall. We thought we might want to have a bit of a celebration, since Thorin said yes," Gudny explained, before hesitating "He did say yes, right?"

I kissed her.

Sometimes that's as good as a 'yes'.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: I believe that this will be the last chapter of this particular story, though i may write more about Fili and Gudny later. Anyway, this is about their wedding, and I'd just like to make it clear that I made up everything about the way that dwarves marry. I probably got it completely wrong and it may make you wish to bang your head against your table or desk, and sob. **

**It's from Kili's POV this time, and thank you if you reviewd/favorited/followed!**

A wedding. Well, stuff me with saffron - how lovely.

And not just any wedding. Fili's wedding.

Considering the amount of time that my brother was devoting to following Gudny around and gazing adoringly at her, I was actually rather surprised when he asked me to help him get ready for his wedding.

And, when you're dealing with dwarves, this mainly meant helping him braid his hair.

"Why isn't Gudny doing this?" I asked, trying not to sound too peevish, as I leaned back a little to admire my handiwork.

"She's getting prepared, herself," said Fili, sounding too happy to have noticed my less than elated mood "And you braid much better, anyway."

I started on the next braid, quite flattered that Fili had even admitted that I was in any way better than that peerless maiden of pure perfection, Gudny the Wonderful.

Now, don't get me wrong. I was happy for Fili. Absolutely. And I wasn't jealous about the fact that Gudny was in love with him. I mean, she was nice looking, and I enjoyed her company and all that, but she was a bit too sharp and hard for me.

No, the cause of my bad mood was Fili's...sheer devotion to her. I had hardly had the chance to talk to him ever since he'd gone and gotten himself betrothed - he'd spent so much time closeted up with Gudny.

Dwarven women were few and far between, and most dwarves either spent their lives searching for a wife, or accepted the fact that they were probably never going to get one and adapted accordingly.

And I'd always assumed that Fili and I would both just continue on as we were, and stay the same. Whereas now, Fili was practically in a different world.

And I didn't like it at all.

"Are you alright?" Fili asked, twisting around in his chair to look at me.

I opened my mouth to say that no, I wasn't, and then thought better of it. He was getting married in a few hours. Not the time to try and make him feel guilty.

"Fine," I said, putting on my most convincing grin "So, how many braids do you want on this side?"

I'd like to say how the rest of the preparations went, but truthfully, I just drifted through them, practically dead to the world. When I finally regained control of myself and managed to focus, I was sitting at the largest table in the Banqueting Hall, in between Bifur and Dori (whom, along with the other Company members, had been given a seat of honor).

Fili stood in the center of the hall, with Gudny beside him. And I had to admit, she looked beautiful. Perhaps not quite as beautiful as the expression on my brother's face would lead you to expect, but still...

In case anyone is interested - I wasn't, really - she was wearing yet another deep purple dress, though this one was a little more elaborately embroidered, and her hair had been braided into a sort of crown that ran around the top of her head.

Very nice, if you liked that sort of thing. I wondered why she'd been wearing so much purple recently. Maybe Fili was partial to the colour.

My brother was wearing his normal attire, which I found a bit odd. Oh well, maybe he didn't want to detract from Gudny's appearance.

Thorin, who was standing just in front of the couple, held a circlet, made of silver, out to my brother. I then watched, with a strange hollow feeling, as Fili gently placed the aforementioned circlet on the top of Gudny's head.

Gudny accepted a golden circlet from my uncle, and then, with a smile so happy that I felt uncomfortable to see it, repeated the process, crowning Fili, this time.

The two of them stood there, staring at each other for a minute or two (while Thorin respectfully took a few steps back), and then embraced. There was an explosion of cheering from the watching dwarves, and I heard a whistle or two coming from the other end of our table, where I knew that Bofur and his kin had been placed.

And there was Fili, my brother and my best friend, now married.

Well, hurrah.

Of course, this small, customary ceremony isn't the end of a dwarven wedding. Far from it.

No, the best part, and the part that I had always looked forward to before, was the celebration afterward. First, the toasting, which, when the wedding was attended by many dwarves, could go on for a while.

Thorin stood up to give his first. It was a fairly simple one, but anything he, King Under the Mountain said was likely to get applause.

"To my nephew and his bride!"

The others all joined in, in fine Dwarven custom, speaking (or yelling) one after the other. Beside me, Bifur growled out something that none of us could understand but was presumably best wishes for the beaming Fili and Gudny.

"To many happy days," said Bombur, a bit indistinctly since he'd managed to surreptitiously stuff some food into his mouth already.

There was only one thing that you could say after someone proposed a toast like that, and I knew that Bofur wasn't going to miss his chance to say it.

"And even happier nights!"

This got a laugh, because, well, you had to laugh at things like that, and I was interested to see that instead of looking bashful, Fili and Gudny both chortled along with everyone else.

"May you have a long and prosperous life together," said Balin.

"Full of adventures," finished Dwalin.

Dori, Nori, and Ori managed to deliver their oddly appropriate toasts in very quick succession.

"To health!"

"To wealth!"

There was quite a bit of laughter after this one, if only because it was Nori who'd said it, which meant that hardly anyone heard Ori's 'To happiness!'.

"To us!"

"To love!"

And then it was my turn, and everyone was watching me. I looked over to where Fili was now sitting next to Thorin, with Gudny very close beside him, and my mouth opened and closed a few times, soundlessly.

This was ridiculous. I couldn't remember ever being tongue-tied in my life, before. Of all the times to be struck dumb and be left standing there like an idiot...

"Khazad baruk," I mumbled, saying the first thing that came into my head.

This was a very old battlecry - meaning 'the axes of the dwarves', but it can be used as a curse ('By the axes of the dwarves!), or can be useful if you're trying to buy something ('So, how much for these axes of the dwarves, then?'). However, it was quite possible that I was the first dwarf to use it when proposing a toast, and everyone stared at me.

It was Bofur who saved me, and I vowed to never again tease him about his hat or play any tricks on him, or anything.

"_Khazad baruk!_" he echoed, raising his cup, and everyone else followed suit.

I sank back in my chair, extremely uncomfortable and wishing that the whole wedding would just be over as quickly as possible. It wasn't, of course.

Because, next came the feasting.

This went on for a very long time, with course after course being brought out and almost instantly consumed. I didn't have much of an appetite at this particular wedding, but I still acquitted myself well in a potato-eating competition with Nori.

The procedure for this, in case you've never participated in one, goes something like this:

All participants try and stuff as many potatoes into their mouths as possible, without a) swallowing or b) being sick. All spectators must cheer loudly, and bang their cups on the table.

It gets really funny when one of the participants tries to talk, and ends up spraying bits of potato everywhere.

After the feast came the dancing, and the drinking. Due to the fact that only a small amount of female dwarves were present, only about half of those who attended the wedding were able to participate in the former of these activities, but that was alright, because there was ale enough for everyone to join in on the latter.

I got tired of glumly watching the newly wedded couple dance - after a few minutes every burst of happy laughter and every swish of Gudny's skirts became deafeningly loud and painful to hear.

Well, I thought, might as well start drinking now.

I could just imagine the remainder of the evening drift by in a series of drinks, and despite the fact that normally no prospect would be more appealing, I couldn't summon up any enthusiasm.

I threaded my way through the crowds, until I reached the large ale barrel that stood in one corner of the hall. Nori had selflessly offered to mind it, which meant mainly checking from time to time to see if it was empty yet, and getting himself as many drinks as he liked.

He was sitting there when I reached it, leaning back in his chair beside it and smoking his pipe, while beside him Bofur was playing a tune on his flure. I nodded, gloomily, to them both and made to get a fresh pint from the barrel, but Nori stuck out one foot and stopped me.

"Sorry, Kili,' he said "I was told to let you have two pints, and no more."

"What? Why? Who told you?"

Nori shrugged, apologetically, and Bofur stopped playing to look at me with an aggravating mixture of sympathy and amusement.

"Thorin," he explained, simply.

I launched into a vivid and colourful description of both Bofur and Nori's parentage, invited them to do something which was actually impossible, and rounded it off by wishing that they would both rip out their own entrails and nail them to trees. I might have stamped my foot a few times - I can't remember.

It was a childish display, I must admit, and it wasn't even their fault. Thorin was clever as well as good at looking majestic, and he knew what sort of mood I was in and the sort of drinking that I was likely to do, but still...

I turned away from the ale barrel, in search of something to kick, and almost tripped over someone who had been sitting on a stool, watching the dancing.

"Sorry," I mumbled, now feeling a little ashamed of myself.

The dwarf looked up and I saw that what I'd automatically assumed to be a 'he' was in fact a 'she'. She looked to be a bit younger than me, and as soon as she jumped to her feet nervously, I saw that she was quite a lot shorter too - barely coming up to my shoulder.

She had light brown hair, a wisp of a beard along her jawline, and somehow, a very familiar face. It wasn't just her features that were familiar, but also that eager and faintly apologetic expression...

"Hold on," I said, before she had the chance to say anything "You wouldn't be related to Dori, and Nori, and Ori, by any chance?"

"'M their sister," said the dwarf, with a nervous and faintly confused smile.

"Their sister?" I repeated, before turning around to see Nori nodding "You never told me you had a sister!"

"Dori was telling you about her only last week," said Nori "I distinctly remember him mentioning Oddny..."

"Yes, well, how do you expect me to pay attention? Whenever Dori starts on about something, I just sort of drift off..."

To my slight surprise, Oddny laughed at this.

"I'm Kili," I said, feeling that I might as well introduce myself "At your service."

Oddny grabbed a handful skirts in each fist (I noticed that, unlike Ori, she'd steered more or less clear of knitted clothes, except for one large sort of tunic, and a scarf), and sank into an awkward curtsy.

"I've heard about you," she said, and I noticed that she was blushing. I'd never seen Gudny blush, and hadn't even known that people actually did it.

It wasn't the first time that someone had told me that they'd heard of me before, but they usually said it in the kind of weary tone that makes it clear that they'd not heard anything good. Oddny managed to say it as if she had heard many good and exciting things about me and could hardly believe that I was standing there, in the flesh.

For the first time all evening, I grinned.

That made her blush all the more.


End file.
